The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for drawing, on a display device, target figures each constructed by a plurality of part figures including characters and images, the part figures being drawn in an optimal order thereof.
The representative prior art drawing device, such as one disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 62-49477, illustratively draws figures such as a human face according to the typical prior art method whereby pluralities of part figures such as hair style, physiognomy, eyes, mouths and noses are prepared beforehand and are then suitably combined to draw the target image of various human faces.
In drawing the above-mentioned part figures including characters and images combined in a superimposed fashion, the prior art method fails to address specifically the order in which to draw such part figures. That is, the part figures are drawn simply in the order in which they were selected. For example, when a human face is to be drawn, a physiognomy is selected first, followed by a hair style so that the part figures representing the physiognomy and the hair style are drawn, simply in that order. In this case, part of the physiognomy is sometimes overlaid with part of the hair style. That is, the physiognomy simply because it was selected first is partially hidden by unnecessary hair style lines.